This morning, realized two things not so great about the Ritz Carlton=hardly any plugs! I’ve got to charge my electronics, you know, Ritz! Coffe from lobby is NOT NOT NOT good. Yes, I have a coffee pot in my room, but I’ve got some quirks about hotels and using the coffee pot in the room is one of them. Even at the Ritz Carlton.

After all that, we were on our way to the Convention Center. We had some time to kill before our 10:30 meeting so we checked out the Reading Market. What an amazing place. Any kind of food you can think of is available there. And, Penn. Dutch own some of the spaces at the market, so you can only imagine the sorts of things available. I had one of the best lattes ever at Reading Market this morning. FYI. At 10:30, we went to a Discussion Group hosted by AASL Affiliate Assembly. I am still learning about the Affiliate Assembly, but from what I can gather, it is Presidents and President Elects of state associations throughout the U.S. There were about 50 people there. We had 4 topics which we talked about with a group. Facilitators and recorders moved through the groups.

Our topics were:

1. How do you recruit people to serve on your state board?

I’m not really sure that we have a problem in South Carolina. Of course, I have never been in the position of finding people to serve on the board. Perhaps when I am President, I’ll notice that it’s an issue. Ideas for recruiting include hosting meetings online, offering “carrots” such as conference registrations and hotel stays. Ida talked about the SCASL Leadership Academy.

2. What is your state doing to implement/roll out the 21st Century Standards for student learners?

These standards were “rolled out” at AASL in October. I was surprised that there were folks sitting at our table who were not aware of this…considering the crowd. Anyway, seems as though most people have not done anything YET. There was a lot of talk about how we need to correlate these standards to state standards, which of course we do! Gail Dickinson, who is on the task force for the standards will be coming to our conference and I think a couple of other folks mentioned that people on the task force are coming to their conferences. I want to somehow get a copy of the standards in everyone’s hands. Yes, they can print them. But, will everyone go to the AASL website and do that?

3. How do we get started on rolling out the 21st century partnership?

This kind of confused everyone. While the 21st Century Partnership sounds wonderful and yes we agree with what its trying to do (teach students to be working adults…skills they need to succeed in the world), we wonder if it isn’t all too much. Our new standards, this partnership, ISTE standards. What do we really want to stand behind and push?

4. How is your state association using Web 2.0 resources?

My favorite! Of course, this is where I have links to go and visit to see what others are doing. CT seems to be doing a lot. Their association newsletter is posted online. They have a wiki that is open to the world. SC was the one with the most 2.0 “things,” but that’s because I enjoy playing. I would not say that our 2.0 “things” are being used in the best way possible. I would like to change that, but of course there is a learning curve and you can only do so many things at one time.

I thought all discussions were very interesting and I have a lot of links and state associations to take a look at now.

After the meeting, we went to the Exhibit Hall where we got our pictures taken with Senator Obama and Rocky Balboa. For real.

Of course, Obama was a cardboard standee and Rocky was an impersonator. Those pictures, I promise you, will be posted soon.

A trip to the spa was next and now it’s time for bed! Big day tomorrow….stay tuned!

One Response to Mid-Winter Day 2

Yep, Kim Isiminger and I were at your hotel for NECC in 2005. I had lunch a couple of times in that market. My most memorable experience ooutside the conf was thinking that everytime i fire truck came down the streets I needed t- plaster myself against a wall, b/c streets were not wide enough to accomodate traffic, much less traffic w/ an emergency vehicle. LOL. Ohh, wishing I was there for this too.